Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Fluffity Fluff Fluff...

Okay. Today I had my first real class and I must say that these kiddos warmed the cold, dark, cockles of my heart.

(Tangent: what the hell is a cockle? Is it some sort of mollusk? Do I remember a folk song about a chick who ended up dying and singing "Cockles and Mussels! Alive, alive, oh...." And do I want to have just claimed a memory of that song?...)

Anyhoo. They did very well today - there are many of them. It's up to 42 now and it's an awkwardly shaped classroom. But I think they were engaged and so I'm pleased.

BUT, even more important (than my career) - I've finally found some cute, dress-'em-up, dress-'em-down knit tops in nice colors and in a nice fit (i.e., it doesn't cut off the blood circulation to my appendages). These tops seem to be made for real people and not stick figure aliens with zero body fat (they know who they are...). And when I teach I can wear them with my black capri pants and cute sandals (with rhinestones on them for added edge!) - Joy! This is so much better than having a good class today. Really. All that comes and goes - it's ephemeral. But knit tops are here to STAY!

Who do I credit with this joyous discovery? New Kid! I read this post the other day and I suddenly remembered: Eddie Bauer is the only store on the planet I haven't visited in the last 4 days looking for hot weather teaching togs. For some reason I always associate their clothing with bark and plaid flannel. But this is completely not true! Thank you for reminding me!!! I bought this, and three of these, and this in blue, and this in pink.

6 comments:

Thank you for the pointers to those tops! I think I may get myself one of the wrap-front ones.

On cockle: because I am procrastinating, I checked the OED, and there are 8 separate headwords for cockle nouns! (1 is a ghost, but still!). The abbreviated answer is that it is a mollusk and the OED associates the "c. of heart" idiom with the mollusk, prob. from the resemblance in shape between cockles and hearts. The whole list is:

1. a plant2. a mollusk 3. a pucker or bulge4. a curl or ringlet5. a kind of stove6. Black Tourmaline7. A disease of wheat produced by a nematoid worm8. explained as ‘a little or young cock (obs.)’: an error in Johnson founded on a misprint of cocke

I had the mollusks, cockles, once. (A few years ago, when I was briefly eating seafood.) I was in Wales, visiting with my Welsh friend, and she insisted that we try some. We were at a market and so she bought a bag. It was like a bag of tiny, slimy snail-like things. It was disgusting!! I think r and I could stomach one each.

Hooray! So glad I accomplished something else with my shopping besides me looking hot! ;-) I actually really like Eddie Bauer - yeah, there's a lot of outdoorsy stuff, but they also have pretty decent "business casual" stuff too. I want to get some of the short/long-sleeved tees you got, except that I've developed an obsession with having collars to my shirts (now that I have short hair, so it hides my short neck!), and am holding out for some of their wrinkle-resistant blouses instead, which I think are fabulous.

And Sisyphus, I find their fabrics pretty good, but then, I can't wear wool, so I only go with their cotton/poly/rayon stuff.

"It was lying on a butcher's block, not crying, although there was snow, but warm and chuckling under a comforter of stray cats. They were all purring together, and the sound was heavy with knowledge. I stood by the strange cradle for a long time, pondering while the snow fell and the cats purred prophecy."